Anniversary Cruise on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, Labadee!!

Our last island day, and 6th day of the cruise was spent on the island of Haiti at Royal Caribbean's private town called Labadee. Again we woke to the beautiful views of the island as we approached the port.



The only thing we had planned for this day was the zipline, called Dragon's Breath. Sadly, we had to put everything in a locker before we went on the zipline, including our phones so we didn't get any pictures of videos of it. I'll put a link down below to a video on Youtube someone else took of this awesome experience.

I absolutely loved it every time we got on and off the ship because it gave me another chance to marvel at the incredible size and beautiful lines of the Allure of the Seas. I don't know if there's a more beautiful cruise liner in the world!



After a quick selfie, we set out to find a couple good beach chairs to claim for the day.



It didn't take us long to find this awesome spot under a shade tree, just a few steps away from the beach.









If you look carefully, you can see the zipline running from right to left above the water, just off the beach. The zipline starts way up high on a hill, 500 feet above seas level, and sends "flyers" soaring 2,600 feet down across a bay at speeds upwards of 50 mph.

We spent all morning parked on our beach chairs, reading, enjoyed all the people watching, took a few dips in the ocean, had a nice free bbq lunch and finally set out on our zipline adventure!

Here is a link to a video of the zipline!
https://youtu.be/BbGC4ixVK0k?t=51s

Although the ship wasn't leaving until 5:30 or 6, we were pretty well spent as were most others by about 3:30, so we headed back onboard. Interestingly, the ship ended up leaving a bit early this day, as everyone must have had the same idea we did.

Our last day on the cruise was spent at sea, sailing back towards the eastern coast of Florida. Our last day was pretty leisurely, as most every other day had been to that point!

I entered another ping pong tournament,



The ship has a zipline of its own that runs diagonally about 90 feet above the Boardwalk, and Heather had to make sure she rode that before the cruise was done!

We spent some more time on the top deck enjoying the gorgeous weather,


Enjoyed free champagne at the last art auction of the cruise and ALMOST walked away spending way too much money on a beautiful piece of art.



And made sure to enjoy the wonderful sight of the ocean drifting on by our awesome stateroom window.



As far as vacations goes, this was easily one of the best of either of our lives so far, and was definitely the best anniversary trip we have had so far! Before we started this trip, we wondered if this would be our first and last time on a cruise ship. We both found this trip to be so much fun, that we're already wondering when we can squeeze in our next cruise! Royal Caribbean was fantastic, the ship was spectacular, and we couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate 8 wonderful years of marriage!

Anniversary Cruise on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, San Juan!!

Day 5 of our cruise started earlier than most with the ship arriving in the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico at 7AM. Although it started early in the morning, our stop in San Juan was still a short one because the ship was scheduled to depart at 2:00, which means everyone must be back on the ship no later than 1:30. With so little time, we decided to stay relatively close to the port, and just had a couple things we wanted to do nearby, including taking a tour of an old fort called Castillo San Cristobal.

We woke up that morning to a view out our balcony door of another cruise ship, the Carnival Valor.



Having so few things on our agenda for the day, we decided to take our time getting up and eating breakfast, hoping the biggest rush of people would be gone by the time we got off the ship. Around 9:00, we walked right off the ship without standing in any line whatsoever. Heather had read online that there was a free shuttle which goes from the cruise port up to the fort, so we walked down the pier to the bus stop and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Although it was still early in the morning, the tropical sun was out in full force and we were already starting to cook! After about 25 minutes of waiting, a bus pulled up. Before I could hardly take a few steps forward, the entire crowd of people standing around me surged ahead and towards the bus door. Just like that, we were in the back of a line of about 50 people to get on a small trolley bus that had no more than 35-40 seats. Shoot. Now we have to wait for the next one. Another 20-30 minutes passed, our patience was running low, and our body temperatures were running high! Not sure what to do, a lady spoke up behind us.
"Are you guys waiting for the trolley?"
"Yeah. We've been waiting for close to an hour now"
"Where are you guys going? Fort Castillo? You know, it's barely a 5-minute walk from here, just right up that road."
Oh brother! Thank you, kind lady! Off we went up the hill. It was a pleasant, 5-10 minute walk up through the quaint, Old San Juan.



In no time, we made it to Fort Castillo San Cristobal, paid the amazing $5 per person admission, and were free to walk around, enjoy the spectacular, sweeping views of the island and ocean, and take pictures to our heart's content. I'll just let these next few pictures do the talking for a minute. Enjoy!









It even had a machine gun nest, just in case you forgot what this thing was really built for...





Back on board the ship, we had plenty of time to goof around with the funny mirrors...

Short and fat?


Or tall and skinny?


Swing by the art gallery to admire some fantastic pieces of art like this painting by Pino,



Listened to some jazz in Central Park,

And we capped off the night by watching people try their hand at surfing on the Flowrider!

We also had an incredible view of the island as the ship set out to sea. I took this video from our balcony!

Our last island day would be spent on the island of Haiti at Royal Caribbean's private "town" called Labadee. We weren't too sure what to expect from that day, but as you'll see, it turned out to be a fantastic stop that was Heather's favorite of the cruise!

Anniversary Cruise on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, St. Maarten!!

Part one of our anniversary cruise left off at the end of our 2nd full day at sea. Up next on the agenda were three consecutive days docked at three different Caribbean islands. We woke up on Wednesday morning to the beautiful sight of the hills of St. Maarten. Or is it St. Martin? This island is almost evenly split between Dutch and French control. It's St. Martin on the dutch side, and St. Maarten on the French side. There are several open borders on the island and we were able to explore all parts of it on a guided tour from a local company.

The view of the island of St. Maarten as we pulled in to port.







We quickly and easily made it to our tour group and set off in a van around the island, first on the Dutch side. We drove through some fairly impoverished parts of the island, but also got to enjoy some beautiful views of some marinas like this one.



The tour made several stops on our way around the eastern side of the island towards the beaches on the northern tip. Some were just beautiful places where we could get great views of the ocean, and others were a little more peculiar but rather interesting, like this spot where 30-50 iguanas hang out because locals sell big leaves to the tourists to feed the iguanas! We elected to just stick with taking pictures! :)






After a handful of stops like this and a much appreciated complimentary beer, we made it to our first major stop, Orient Beach, where we spent a couple hours playing in the waves and enjoying the beautiful scenery!



When our time at the beach was up, we all hopped back in the van, drove over to the French side, and had lunch in a pretty nice part of the island that is full of high-end shopping. Before we departed for our last major stop of the day, we ran in to a nice French bakery that has fantastic reviews online for a couple sweet treats. With an apple tart and a couple macaroons in hand, we piled in the van and drove to Princess Juiliana airport. That might seem like a really strange place to visit on an island tour, but this is no ordinary airport! To be clear, we didn't actually go to the airport. Rather, we made a stop at a small beach called Maho beach which is adjacent to the airport. How adjacent you ask?

From the road next to the beach, if you look left...



And if you look right...?



Yeah. That's a Boeing 757 that I could probably hit with a rock from where I stood. Being a fairly small island with obvious hills in the background, there was barely enough room for a runway long enough for large commercial jets to land. So the beginning of the runway extends all the way to a very narrow road, across from which is a tiny beach. Naturally this beach is a huge tourist attraction as people like to stand on the fence, grab a hold, and try to withstand the tremendous blast of the jet's engines as it takes off. The less hot and windy attraction is watching these same large jets fly very low over the beach as they come in to land. How low?

REALLY low!






Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the ship. I snapped a few last pictures of the island on our way back,






Our last surprise of the day came when we boarded the ship. The security guard was not too pleased that we were bringing food onboard. He said we could either eat it in front of him or throw it out. Neither of us was at all interested in throwing out these delicious desserts, but we were hoping to savor them after dinner that evening. But given no other options, we looked at each other, put on a little smile, and set in to devour those things! St. Maarten was a very interesting first stop on our cruise. The island had quite a bit of run down, impoverished areas, some very fancy areas, and not much in between. As expected, the island was incredibly green and the views could not have been more beautiful! We really enjoyed our day on the island and agreed we'd be willing to go back some day, but probably wouldn't want to spend an entire week there.

Back on the ship, we had dinner in the main dining room, and spent part of the evening enjoying the warm ocean breeze on the boardwalk.



The next morning, we would wake up at another island that we could only hope was as full of fun and adventure as St. Maarten!

Anniversary Cruise on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas!!

Yes, the blog is back!! Many of you have been so kind to let us know in the past that you enjoy reading these posts, and we've really enjoyed hearing that! We apologize for such a long break between posts, but we have one of our best ever for you now!

Many of you also know that Heather and I got married on 8/8/2008. Since then, we've hoped to be able to go on some sort of major vacation for our 8th wedding anniversary. A couple weeks ago, we were fortunate to be able to make good on that dream as we set sail on a 7-night cruise of the Eastern Caribbean on a fantastic ship called Allure of the Seas. This was both of our first time on a cruise of any kind, and we were so excited to experience a type of vacationing that we'd heard so many of our friends speak highly of! Normally our posts can get a little long just covering a single day's adventure. Having to cover an entire week's worth of adventures is going to take a couple posts, so consider this part one!

Here are a few facts about the ship just so you can appreciate the size of the vessel. The Allure of the Seas is currently the 2nd largest cruise ship in the world, bested only by its sister ship Harmony of the Seas, which is only one foot longer at 1,187 feet long and nearly 200 feet wide. The Allure of the Seas contains 25 dining options, an ice skating rink, an indoor theater that seats almost 1,400, and an outdoor theater on the back of the ship that seats over 600. It's a BIG boat!



We boarded the ship on a Sunday at lunch time, and explored around for a few hours before it left Port Everglades at 4:30 in the afternoon. We found a great vantage point on the 14th deck to take in the scenery as made our way out to sea off the Florida coast just north of Miami.

Before we left, we got to watch the Carnival Conquest head out to sea! Despite some concern beforehand, the weather could not have been better!





Our view as we headed out to sea



Our cruise was off to a fantastic start! The ship and scenery were absolutely fantastic! But after only an hour at sea, the Captain came on the intercom and announced that there was a medical emergency on board and we were turning around to go back to Florida to drop them off. It seemed like quite a massive ordeal to bring the entire ship back to port rather than send a helicopter or another ship out to ours to pick up the ill passenger, but that's just what we did! We ended up leaving Port the 2nd time about 4 hours behind schedule, and we wondered whether we'd be able to make up the lost time and still make it to our first island destination on Wednesday morning.

In the meantime, we had two full days at sea to explore the ship and all it had to offer. We had an ocean-view balcony stateroom on the 7th deck. What you've probably heard about cruise ship staterooms is true. They're small! That said, our room was laid out in a way that worked well for two people, with plenty of closet and other storage space, including enough room underneath the king-sized bed for our suitcases. By far the best part of our room was the balcony. About 6x8 feet with two chairs and a little table, it was a perfect place to sit, watch and listen to the ocean, and enjoy room service breakfast in the morning or look at the stars at night.

Here are a few pictures from around the ship:

This is called the Royal Promenade. It's on the Deck 5 and has everything from a Starbucks, to a New York-style pizzeria (free), to fancy shopping (a la Kate Spade), to a bar that hosts nightly activities like trivia and karaoke. The grennery you see at the top of this picture is a glimpse of Central Park on Deck 8. Yes, this boat, having a largely open center, has a full blown park and garden!




And this is Central Park! This is where you find some of the fancier places on the ship like a Coach handbag store, a wine bar, Park Cafe, and three of the nicer restaurants (Giovani's, Central Park 150, and Chops Grille). We also found musical entertainment most evenings here, ranging from a 6-piece classical and jazz group to solo classical guitar. Generally it's really peaceful here, and they pipe in bird sounds which add to the authentic feeling of the space.




The view from our balcony! The Bahamas are barely visible on the horizon.




A couple of goofballs hitting the links!







The two full days at sea were so much fun! Having a seemingly endless supply of activities to offer, and a tremendous display of locations in which to host them, we never had even a moment of boredom!

About a third of the way forward from the rear of the ship on Deck 15, we had a great view of the Boardwalk on Deck 6 down below. It has a carousel, hot dog vendor, candy shop, 50's burger joint, mexican food restaurant, and that gorgeous open-air theater in the center of this picture. As you can see, this ship has balcony staterooms that face inward to the Boardwalk and Central Park, and outward to the ocean!



We spent the first couple late nights in the jazz club on Deck 4. We loved the styling in there with the fancy black leather chairs and great mood lighting in the tray ceilings!




Cheesy in name but beautiful to see, Dazzles on Decks 8 and 9 was a nightly hotspot for everything from a DJ club vibe all the way to big band jazz (why we were there)    :)   The view through the two-story windows looks out over the Boardwalk and the rear of the ship.



The list of things we did on the first 2 1/2 days on the cruise are simply far too long to list in the blog, but they include attending the first of several fine art auctions, drinking $1 mimosas (several), entering in a ping pong tournament, eating self-serve ice cream by the pool, watching a dodgeball tournament at the basketball court, formal night in the dining room, a show at the Aqua Theater, a fancy and incredibly delicious dinner at Central Park 150, and more! And so far we're only as far as Tuesday night on a Sunday-to-Sunday cruise! In the next post, we'll share our experiences at the three island stops on our cruise (St. Maarten, San Juan, and Labadee (private area on the island of Haiti). We'll also share more of our overall thoughts on cruises, a few tips and tricks that we've learned, and what we think about going on another one! You won't want to miss that!

It's wonderful to be back writing on this blog and we hope it finds you all well. Until next time!

Photo Challenge, Part 1

A month ago, Heather and I began a 30-photo challenge. I've been spending a fair amount of time lately trying to learn as much about photography as I can. Undoubtedly one of the best ways to do so is to get the gear out and practice! Heather came across a website that proposed taking 30 photographs in 30 days, with each focusing on a certain style or technique. That link will open a new window where you can check out each of the 30 topics. Although we immediately realized that taking 30 technical pictures in 30 days wasn't realistic for us, we wanted to give it a try! So here we are a month later to present our progress. This is definitely a joint effort and so far we've really enjoyed it. Heather definitely has the more artistic eye while I tend to be in charge of selecting the technical aspects of the camera and lens. All of our pictures (but one) are taken on a Nikon D7000. We hope you enjoy our pictures and that it motivates you to take a few yourselves!

The first shot was self portrait. For this, we set up a tripod in our driveway and took shots in our front yard after church on Easter. You may have seen these pictures on Instagram but we thought we'd include them again here. I didn't realize until afterwards that I had forgotten to shoot in RAW format so my ability to touch these up was really limited.

Next up was the rule of thirds. This is a common composition technique where the frame is divided into a 3x3 grid. Instead of placing objects of interest (strong lines, eyes, light sources, etc.) in the center of the frame as we're all tempted to do, place them either along major lines or where lines intersect. After reading this, I came to realize that I was almost always violating this "rule". Here's an honest attempt to follow it!

Heather and I went to Percy Warner park last weekend and found these interesting curves. We wanted to make something out of it so here's a shot of what they look like, following by hopefully a more artistic approach including some foreground foliage.

For the black and white, I'm reusing one of my favorite shots I've ever taken of Heather. This was from a trip to Arrington vineyard last fall.

Next up was texture. You can find these stone walls all over Nashville, especially in the Belle Meade area.  I particularly like how there are a bunch of small stones crammed in the extra spaces rather than using mortar.

For the high angle shot, I had to use one I took from a flight from Austin to Nashville. I had never seen clouds form like that before! Have you?

For the low angle shot, I took this at the John F.Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. At the end of the tour, you walk into this huge sun room overlooking the water. The huge American flag was an obvious point of interest and I happened to sneak behind Heather while she looked up at it. If I could do it again I'd try to get a little lower and closer to her.

We tried to get some good silhouette shots in Boston but none of them turned out. I think we learned some valuable things about what NOT to do, and we'll keep trying!

Sunset was next on the list and we got a great shot at McCabe golf course a few nights ago. The shot didn't really come together until I got to work on it in photoshop and we realized while we were out there that we definitely have some things to learn about sunset photography too!

Next up is bokeh (pronounced BOW-kay), which is the fancy termed for a blurred out background. This technique is typically used to isolate a subject from the background, as in portrait photography and/or to give some depth to the shot. Here are a couple of ours!

The last topic we've covered so far is lens flare. This one is probably self-explanatory. The first shot was pretty intentional while the rainbow in the second picture was a nice surprise when I started editing.

So that's it for now! We'll continue to get out there and experiment with various techniques and bring our results to you in bunches like this. We hope you enjoy this and ultimately that it inspires you to take a camera outside and experiment yourself with some of these ideas!

Until next time!